Brookville Historic District

Brookville is a mixed-use district in the Borough of Brookville, Jefferson County, covering about 90 acres on a hillside north of Redbank Creek. Its commercial core along Main Street, which is 90 feet wide, holds Italianate blocks such as the Blood Block of 1875-1876 and the Marlin Opera House Block of 1883-1884. The town became county seat in 1830 and grew as a center of the regional lumber trade, which by the 1860s shipped an estimated 20 million feet annually through more than fifty mills. Surrounding residences range from Greek Revival houses such as the Joseph E. Hall House, ca. 1848, to Queen Anne, Second Empire and Colonial Revival homes. The district is also associated with Civil War service, an Underground Railroad refuge at the Judge Elijah Heath house, and an 1857 dissection that later influenced Pennsylvania law. Two large stone churches and several Gothic Revival churches add to its architectural range.